Does not hurt anymore...

I have been reading alot of the articles about how many times you should lift and all, and I have been reading all the different methods used, And over the last four weeks, I have been trying them all out.. I have tried training my chest once a week, and I have tried training it three times a week..

Now, here is the problem and question.

I work at home with free weights, and for some reason, I cannot get the soreness in my muscles anymore like when you first start lifting.. Even when I go up in weight, nothing more than a pump is all I get.. I may be wrong, but I thought that if you got that kind of soreness, that meant that the muscle has been broken down, and now it will need to repair itself, and also grow..
Now, this maybe my problem, and if so, what could you suggest..
My wife who is only 4'10" tall and about 105 lbs cannot spot me very much at all.. So I am limited at how much weight I can use.. I am pretty sure that I am needing to go up in weight to get the soreness that I am looking for.. But, I do not have anyone to help spot me.. Wife does not want me to join a gym, because we both spend to much time at work away from our kids as it is.. So the gym is out for now..

I have also tried shocking my muscles several different ways by doing my exercises different ways, but still do not get the result I am looking for.. I also do not feel that I am growing ...
I am still taking my protein and multi Vitamins... I have only dropped 2 of the 12 lbs since I finished up my SD cycle and PCT.. So I am please with that.. I am trying to loose some of the love handles that I got , but I did have some nice gains on the cycle and have actually gotten bigger from it.. Now I would just like to feel like I am still accomplishing something when I am lifting..

Am I just being to impatient, or am I correct that I will not grow if I do not get the soreness that I am looking for...

Thank you all for your help and info..

Advise would be great, or just point me to a post that you may know about.. I have not been able to find what I am looking for so far..

Thnaks again...

Oh yeah...
If I posted this in the wrong area, pleas let me know, and I will move it..

soreness is a poor indicator of how you're doing. if your strength is going up or the mirror and/or measuring tape is going the way you want, just concentrate on that. i rarely get sore anymore and i know damn well my workouts are intense enough.

fwiw, i had my wife spot me on multiple occasions with no issues, and she's about 120 or so. if a spotter has to help you that much, it's too much weight anyway.

As for your goals... you are frustrated that you are not gaining weight yet you are trying to lose love handles? Which is it? You need to figure out what your goals are and focus diet and training around that. You need a caloric surplus to put on weight and a deficit to lose it.

Not trying to lose weight... But I need to loose the love handles and the fat I got on my obliques.. I see definition coming in on my chest and my delts and my arms are looking better, But I would just like to see better results on my chest.. As for my diet.. It is lacking, but it is better than what it has ever been... I have read so much on how important it is to eat right, and to make sure you eat the right foods.. Is kinda hard, and I have total respect for those of you who can do it.. Just alittle harder when ya have 2 little girls who will not eat what you like to eat....

I guess, I was wanting to feel the soreness like I did many yrs ago.. I always knew if I was sore, I had a good workout.. Now, I just get a good pump.. I know I am having a good workout, Guess I am just expecting to much right now.

Now as for my wife spotting, Maybe I just do not trust her to get the weight off of me If I get to where I cannot get it back up. Maybe I need to place alittle more trust in her..

Now as for my wife spotting, Maybe I just do not trust her to get the weight off of me If I get to where I cannot get it back up. Maybe I need to place alittle more trust in her..

If you want to do assisted reps you don't need much help. If your out for breaking records and expecting to fail big time you probably need more than one spotter anyway to be safe.

...you're not one of these guys that give up once you reach failure... you know the ones that stop pushing if they can't lift the bar anymore and bascially hand the weigth over to the spotter.
Gee - how I hate that...

No, I always keep pushing... I don't give up until I get it on the rack.. Have not had to have her help me yet, I know that all I need or should hopefully need is a slight bit of help, but there have been times when I was younger that I needed a tad bit of help, and all of a sudden, It turned out that I lost what seemed like all my strength.. That is when I worry about if my wife could help me or not..

I guess my main question was .. Should I still feel the soreness, If not, I was curious if I should go up in weight to get that or not.. But, my question got answered earlier.. He said he does not get sore anymore either.. I will keep experimenting to see what else I can come up with...

there have been times when I was younger that I needed a tad bit of help, and all of a sudden, It turned out that I lost what seemed like all my strength..

i do that sometimes on the leg press... lol. i lose all my strenght and the weight seems to simply plummet when i break my concentration at all.....

one time i was doing only 180 on the leg press ( a simple warm up set!!!) and someone was making funny noises and i looked over and kinda laughed and the weight dropped......lol so sad.....i felt like it made me look like a total weakling....lol

The initial soreness you get is from DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness), and it's not necessarily an indicator of progress. As far as I know, DOMS has not yet been fully explained. We only seem to get it when hitting new muscle fibers...when you first start lifting, have a couple weeks off then hit it hard again, or switch up your workouts and do different exercises.

In other words, just because you're not getting sore, does not mean you didn't have a good workout.